1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand holdable pump spray system and a pump spray apparatus and more particularly to a hand holdable pump spray system and apparatus which is easier to use, safer and less expensive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-aerosol pump spraying devices have been developed primarily to eliminate the use of propellants which have a detrimental effect on the environment and to eliminate the use of pressurized containers which pose a safety hazard. Pressurized containers may explode and cause injury, and when the containers have ingredients such as insecticide, weed and grass killer and fertilizer, there may be undesirable environmental affects. Examples of non-aerosol pump spray apparatus may be seen by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,938,116; 5,918,782; 5,860,574; 5,816,447; 5,810,211 and 4,174,055.
A drawback to all of such non-aerosol pump apparatus is that the pump device is located in the container having the liquid to be pumped. There is then a flexible tube connecting the container to a hand holdable spray device or "wand". Typically, the container is sold as a disposable unit to be discarded when no more liquid can be pumped from the container. This results in a relatively high cost because the pump mechanism, located within the container, is also discarded along with the container. Another problem of pump-in-container designs is that the hand held wand must be set down or held in an awkward position when the pump is to be operated because two hands are necessary to manipulate the pump. For example, when it comes time to operate the spraying device, the pump must be activated to pressurize at least part of the system. Usually this means there a need to pull upwardly on a handle attached to a piston located in the container. While this is done with one hand, the other hand must hold the container "down" to counteract the upward pull on the handle. Hence, it is difficult to also hold the wand at the same time.
There are also safety issues made especially more relevant because of the nature of the liquid being sprayed. There are at least two potential safety problems. First, there is a need to seal the container when it is shipped from the factory and again when stored by a consumer. Secondly, there is a need to safely transfer the liquid which has been pumped from the container into the hand holdable wand but which was not discharged during use.
Finally, there may also be a safety problem regarding unused liquid in the container at the time of disposal. It is, of course, economically more efficient to use as much of the liquid as possible before disposal, and it is better to have as little liquid remaining in the container as possible at the time of disposal. It is understood that it is difficult, if not impossible, to completely empty a container using a non-aerosol pump, and opening the spout of the container is not recommended because of the nature of the liquid within.
The numerous prior attempts to improve upon non-aerosol pump spray devices have yet to produce an optimal system.